Now those skeptics lead the charge. TRON: Legacy— an update on 1982's sci-fi cult favorite about a game designer, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), who gets sucked into cyberspace and is forced to compete in gladiatorial games — arrives Friday with all the hopes (and special-effects dough) the first film never inspired.

But for a guy rejected hundreds of times for his far-off concept of a virtual reality ruled by computers, Lisberger isn't in an I-told-you-so mood.

"Back then, we were just flying blind," says Lisberger, whose inspiration for TRON came after watching a demo reel of a Pong video game in 1976. "Everything was so experimental, people didn't know what we were trying to do. Now they come up and tell me they got into special effects because of TRON."

Well, maybe TRON's legacy. The original isn't going to be confused with Avatar. Filmmakers had one computer, with 2MB of memory, a pittance for most cellphones today. Actors performed on sets covered in black felt, and most of the effects were hand drawn in the traditional animation style (although the Academy Awards ruled TRON ineligible for an animation Oscar because computers were considered cheating).

A brave new electronic world

At the time, Lisberger had no idea he was on the cusp of a breakthrough. He had an animation studio in the 1970s and was looking for a high-tech Mickey Mouse to represent his company. (TRON is short for "electronic.")

While the digital hero never became a pitchman for anything more than video games and toys, he was compelling enough to persuade Disney to spot Lisberger $17 million.

The intent was to make an animated film superimposed with Bridges' live-action scenes. But the technology wasn't there for a seamless blend, Lisberger says. So crews draped the sets in black cloth while animators drew an electronic glow around the stars, props and vehicles.

The $17 million film would earn $33 million, though it would split critics. "Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational," wrote Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. But The New York Times' Janet Maslin called the visual effects "numbing after a while."

But for sci-fi die-hards, the new world had been discovered. Flynn Arcades, named after Bridges' character, cropped up nationwide. Video games out-sold the movie.

"TRON is a film that emerged on the cusp of the personal computer revolution, crystallizing the hopes and anxieties of this unknown technological force for a whole generation," says Ben Chang, an associate professor in the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"Today, we're so immersed in computing that we barely give it a second thought — the exotic future is now ordinary," he says. "TRON recaptures that wonder, while still speaking to the continued meshing of the human and the digital."

It's still all about the story

TRON's themes of sentient computer beings — with little need for humans — would become a template for modern sci-fi franchises like The Terminator and The Matrix.

But even with a reported $170 million budget, Legacy director Joseph Kosinski says he didn't want to get too wrapped up in technology. Set a quarter-century after Flynn disappears, Legacy follows son Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) as he enters the gaming world looking for his dad.

"I think people admire TRON because it was the first CGI movie, but you don't want to get wrapped up in just making a digital version of that world," he says. "It's still a tool to tell a good story."

In fact, fans and academics say it's the narrative that has helped TRON survive over the decades — in a medium obsessed with the newfangled.

"It's not a stretch to say that TRON opened the doors of CGI wide," says Chris Carle, editor of the gaming site IGN Entertainment. "It was innovative and before its time, but ultimately (it) harked back to stories told for centuries. It's a true hero's quest told with, at the time, new tools in the brave new world of computer technology. It persists today because the story was classic and the design iconic. Plus, the effects still look crazy cool. No movie before or since has looked or felt quite like TRON."

Busch, 38, also a film critic for the JoBlo Movie Network, negotiated her way on set to cover the new film.

"Most sets look like sets," she says. "This one really looked like being inside a computer, and I think it's because all of the crew had such wonderful memories of the first movie. They all talked about where they were when they first saw TRON."

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